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The tea party brand has proved to be a potent source of revenue.
AP photo composite by POLITICO

The California-based political action committee Our Country Deserves Better PAC-TeaPartyExpress.org has raised big bucks — and hackles — for its own pair of bus tours on the so-called Tea Party Express, whose riders participated in tea party rallies in towns along its cross-country routes.

The PAC sought $250,000 in donations from grass-roots activists to fund a bus tour that started in San Diego in October and ended this month in Orlando. The PAC, which is planning another pair of tours in 2010, reported to the Federal Election Commission that from the beginning of the year through the end of June (the most recent figures available), it raised $585,000 and paid $235,000 to PAC officials, the consulting firm that runs the PAC, and the activists who have traveled on the Express.

The PAC’s coordinator, Joe Wierzbicki, said its goal “ is to support conservative candidates for Congress in 2010 and a conservative presidential candidate in 2012.” A good portion of its money went to produce ads supporting Republican campaigns, including Jim Tedisco’s narrow loss in the special election for a western New York congressional seat, and opposing Democrats such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. In all, the PAC this year spent $327,000 on independent expenditures http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/com_supopp/C00454074/ through the end of June.

In two closely watched battles between Republican moderates and conservative challengers, small donors have played a major role. Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate in a New York special congressional election, received most of the more than $265,000 he raised for his unsuccessful campaign from outside his upstate New York district. And Marco Rubio, who is trailing Florida Gov. Charlie Crist in a battle for the GOP nomination.html for the Senate, raised $315,000 of the $1 million in contributions he reported in the last quarter from small, out-of-state donations.

Wierzbicki’s PAC has come under heavy fire from activists who have charged it alternately with trying to co-opt the movement for partisan political purposes and “using the name tea party to put money in his own pockets.”

Tea Party Nation, a for-profit company that runs a social networking website for activists and is now selling tickets — at $560 a pop — to what it’s billing as the “First National Tea Party Convention,” has also come under fire from activists. According to the organization’s website, the planned three-day convention in February is “aimed at bringing the Tea Party Movement leaders together from around the nation for the purpose of networking and supporting the movements' multiple organizations principal goal

The registration fee doesn’t include lodging at Nashville’s sprawling Gaylord Opryland Hotel, where the convention is being held. But it does include access to scheduled speeches by tea party heroes Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Palin, whose speaking fee (reported to be in the six figures) was paid by convention organizers.

“If this were a perfect world, we wouldn’t charge anybody, but to put on an event like this, there are expenses that have to be covered,” said Tea Party Nation President Judson Phillips. He explained that his group is hoping to turn a profit from the event so that it can “funnel money back into conservative causes” through a 527 group it plans to set up to get involved in campaigns.

“This is the source of a lot of disagreement within the tea party movement, where a lot of people say money is a bad thing. But the simple fact of the matter is that you are not going to get candidates elected without money,” he said.

“The tea party movement is a grass-roots movement; it’s not a business,” countered Anthony Shreeve, an East Tennessee local tea party organizer who resigned from the convention’s steering committee after a disagreement over finances. “Most tea party activists won’t be there because they can’t afford it,” he said, adding that the convention “could potentially harm the movement, because it’s a premature national initiative that doesn’t have the support of the majority of we the people.”

Tea Party Nation’s website sells ads such as the one for a book called “Tea Party Revival: The Conscience of a Conservative Reborn,” which bills itself as “an essential guide” to the movement, and also hawks Tee-shirts emblazoned with “Got Tea?”

Hey Ken, wake up! It's not just the right wingers that are looking to try and wrest the government from the hands of the elitists, it's the ordinary American people that are finally snapping out of their deep slumber and are wanting to participate in a meaningful way. When government is telling you what sort of light bulb or TV to buy based on flawed environmental science, it's time to put the loons out of office and get folks with some common sense. It's just that simple and we don't need a bunch of hand wringers and appeasers to try and find some "common ground". I'm afraid that time has long passed.

I love the sign that reads "Evil can't win when people fight for what's right." Do these nutjobs realize we had a democratic election last year? Were they blacked out drunk for those months? Obama and Biden ran against McCain and Palin. Obama and Biden won. So Obama got to be president. So, what these teabaggers are proposing to "fight against" is the will of the people as expressed in the democratic election.

If they want to campaign for conservative candidates, that's fine, they should. But to imply that Obama somehow conquered America and is imposing his agenda against the will of the public is just crazy. The public went out and voted for him, while he was saying he would reform the financial industry and health care. Maybe if these idiots paid attention last year instead of chugging grain alcohol and breeding with their cousins, they would be able to understand that.

And let's face it. These are just bitter people who are angry about the election results and are venting, and they have found a way to make that venting seem like a "movement." Sour grapes is not a movement. This has nothing to do with a coincidental sudden reaction to decades of spending. These people had the past eight years to complain about spending while Bush broke spending and deficit records. But he's a white Republican, and they are white Republicans, so when he did it, spending was ok. Now that there's a Democrat in office, these people suddenly become enraged at the government? And it's a black Republican too, so their racism is ignited on top of their partisanship... hence the tea party rallies. I guarantee that if McCain/Palin had won, and if they had kept up the same level of spending, these people would be sitting at home talking about how McCain is a true American and how VP Sarah has a nice rack.

So let them have their little protests, and let them give their money (which they claim to have none of because Obama's in office?) to whichever candidates they feel should be elected. And if their candidates get elected, then good for them, that's what democracy is all about. It's just too bad they're too stupid/racist/bitter to realize the same about Obama's election.

I love the sign that reads "Evil can't win when people fight for what's right." Do these nutjobs realize we had a democratic election last year? Were they blacked out drunk for those months? Obama and Biden ran against McCain and Palin. Obama and Biden won. So Obama got to be president. So, what these teabaggers are proposing to "fight against" is the will of the people as expressed in the democratic election.

If they want to campaign for conservative candidates, that's fine, they should. But to imply that Obama somehow conquered America and is imposing his agenda against the will of the public is just crazy. The public went out and voted for him, while he was saying he would reform the financial industry and health care. Maybe if these idiots paid attention last year instead of chugging grain alcohol and breeding with their cousins, they would be able to understand that.

And let's face it. These are just bitter people who are angry about the election results and are venting, and they have found a way to make that venting seem like a "movement." Sour grapes is not a movement. This has nothing to do with a coincidental sudden reaction to decades of spending. These people had the past eight years to complain about spending while Bush broke spending and deficit records. But he's a white Republican, and they are white Republicans, so when he did it, spending was ok. Now that there's a Democrat in office, these people suddenly become enraged at the government? And it's a black Republican too, so their racism is ignited on top of their partisanship... hence the tea party rallies. I guarantee that if McCain/Palin had won, and if they had kept up the same level of spending, these people would be sitting at home talking about how McCain is a true American and how VP Sarah has a nice rack.

So let them have their little protests, and let them give their money (which they claim to have none of because Obama's in office?) to whichever candidates they feel should be elected. And if their candidates get elected, then good for them, that's what democracy is all about. It's just too bad they're too stupid/racist/bitter to realize the same about Obama's election.

Get trained , get all permits required by law , get a gun , and have it with you at all times . If some places prohibit your carrying the firearm , don't go to those places , while you work to get that law changed . Thank you for being ready to defend our freedoms with whatever it takes .

I am a moderate that has never protested anything in my life. I went to the Sacramento Tea party with my wife, 24 year old daughter and her left leaning boyfriend. We brought our home made signs that basically said "Quit spending my kids and future Grand kids future. We saw folks from all walks of life. There was nothing but normal Americans raising their voices in displeasure to our leaders on both sides of the isle.

Then we got home and saw how the media portrayed the event. They called us racist, extremists, tea baggers, etc... My daughters boyfriend has been shocked by how the event was reported on and is now "One of us"

I am now emboldened by those on the far left that have tried to make us sound radical and who have uncounted the event in DC in September. I only wish I could have attended that one.

Americans are saying enough. Our numbers and power will grow. I personally am dedicating my 2010 to make sure all Pork spending Congress people on both sides are shown the door. We have had it.

tells you just how bad dubya & cheney have screwed up the "republican" brand, they now call themselves "conservatives" and are nothing more than the same extrmist fringe that has taken over the GOP. what else do you expect from a party enamored with labels; soccer moms, security moms, nascar dads, walmart & sams club shoppers... we now have tea baggers, 9/12ers and birthers. no matter the label, they're all the same and backed by the same GOP establishment money.

it's hilarious how they espouse the politics of reagan when reagan wouldn't pass their litmus test today. reagan bailed out chrysler, the Savings & Loan industry, expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit (commonly refered to as welfare by these folk) and reagan gave us some of the highest tax increases on the books to include hiking FICA from 6.13% to 7.51%.

Baystater, did that baseball that hit ya in the head scramble something? Wow, talk about being bitter and scornful, your little piece sorta reminds me of the kid that couldn't get their way and took their ball and bat home.

I have never given any money to any political candidate or party or cause. Not one cent. I can't afford to. But, something I have wondered about is, why is it that so many rich liberals contribute gigantic amounts of money to their cause, like George Soros, or Bill Gates, the hollywood people, etc., but I never hear of any CONSERVATIVE rich guy donating money to the conservative causes or candidates. For that matter, I don't even know who any rich conservatives are. Seems like every wildly rich person I have ever heard of is a leftist. Kind of strange, when you consider that the ultimate goal of the left, if they ever got to REALLY run wild, would be to take most of the rich people's money away from them.